Danger Zone One

[Published 2 Months Ago]
Letters to the Editor, Pallad City Post

Pallad City Post:

Why haven’t you featured more articles on the deplorable conditions residents are currently facing in the Alka District? It’s clear Mayor Neville and the media would rather sweep these issues under the rug than bring any attention to Pallad City’s so-called ‘slum districts’. Every week I hear about the Mayor’s Renew Initiative, but the truth is painfully obvious—his plan for this city will cater exclusively to the richer districts while Lago, Ardus, and Alka will be left to implode.

It’s been years since any politician has seriously talked about revitalizing Alka. The abandoned Heffen Concert Hall is a wreck and a structural hazard just waiting to collapse. The Olander Auditorium’s another disaster, now a playground for gangs and drug dealers. Seven years ago a pitiful attempt was made to restore the Yukotan Sports Arena. The project was scrapped before a single stone was moved. Almost a decade later and the arena’s one more reminder of how city officials have continually failed this district.

Last year we endured repeated power outages because of aging infrastructure and sewage overflow that contaminated the drinking water. Then in June, the Klen Street sinkhole leveled three buildings. Since then, nothing’s been done to prevent future outages or to assure residents that the water is clean. As for the sinkhole, the area’s now an abandoned crater. This brings us to the latest fiasco—lack of district-wide trash removal. We have garbage piling up on the sidewalks and into the streets because the sanitation department’s claiming it’s “too dangerous” to do their job here. Walk around at night and you’ll see legions of rats patrolling the streets.

I’m confused, why am I paying taxes? We already have the Kurtow Ruins as a perpetual reminder of this city’s greatest failure and enduring shame. Is the Mayor trying to turn Alka into Kurtow 2.0?

Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Salaiix.